Thursday, January 31, 2008

Quick - when is the last time Michigan entered the season unranked? Whatever the previous answer is, the current answer just might be 2008.

A Rivals.com article called "Draft departures cause Top 25 to change," took another look at its first preseason poll of 2008 and had this to say about the Wolverines in the wake roster changes due to players leaving early for the NFL draft and coaching changes:

"Michigan's place in the top 25 was tenuous at best following the graduation of its starting backfield and offensive tackle Jake Long. Since then, wide receivers Mario Manningham and Adrian Arrington entered the draft and Chad Henne's heir apparent at quarterback, Ryan Mallett, transferred to Arkansas. New personnel and a new scheme could mean growing pains for new coach Rich Rodriguez.

Taking the Wolverines' place in the top 25 is Fresno State."

I'm sorry, for a second I thought that said Fresno State.

Fresno State, ladies and gentlemen.

As in the WAC. Taking Michigan's place in a preseason Top 25.

Fresno. State.

Holy Schembechler!

Hold on, folks, I'm looking outside for locusts. Because I'm pretty sure the Bulldogs replacing the Wolverines among college football's preseason elite is one of the signs of the Apocalypse as foretold in Revelations.

And to all those who couldn't wait for Lloyd to leave, who claimed any idiot with a coach's headset could do what he did with the talent at a school like Michigan, well, we'll see.

30 comments:

Preseason rankings are buttkiss anyways. Every time MI is ranked highly in the preseason (5th last year) they find some way to suck it up and drop way down. I'd rather see them unranked in the preseason and then power climb their way to the top. If you take much stock in preseason polls then you really shouldn't be watching college football.

It doesn't matter where we start in the polls, only where we end in them. Yes, you've got situations like Auburn in 2004, but I doubt it will matter for us this season. I'm thinking 9 wins sounds about right, maybe 10 if this QB situation turns out alright.

Yost,Ok, I’m one of those who have been calling for Lloyd’s head for some time, so let me answer your question squarely- we’re not ranked because of Lloyd, not R2. i'm sorry. I know it’s very “michigan” of us to look back at lloyd and try to be kind, remember the "good times". yeah, that win over FLA was nice. But seriously- what else about last year does anyone care to remember??? The 0-2 start? The 0-2 finish of the regular season?

Face it- most of the program's problems, at least from a reputation standpoint, are a direct result of Lloyd's coaching over the last 5 years. we finished the last 5 years 1-4 in bowls, 1-4 against tosu, and 17 losses overall. compare our record to other top programs we like to think of as our peers- OU/USC/UT/any good SEC school over the same time period and we have sucked.

And last season? we lost to f'ing App St. that's not "maintaining" the program. that's letting it go to hell. Lloyd ran the program into mediocrity. we spent a significant amount of time unranked last season. Only the upset of FLA kept us finishing unranked for the 2nd time in 3 seasons (2005).

R2 may turn out to NOT be the answer. He may flame out in 3 seasons for all we know now. But if he does, when we look for a new coach, it won’t be for another “Lloyd”.

Pre-season rankings mean squat especially since they haven't even signed their new players or even had the spring game. I'm with the other folks here, I'd rather see them unranked and climb to the top rather than start and the top and crash to the bottom.

Well it'll make us look good when we beat the "Top 10" Domers on their home turf next september.

SIC, as usual I agree with you. While I respect the things that Lloyd did with the program- no check that- I respect Lloyd and his love of the program. What we did in the Florida game shows me that we could've been dominating the last few years if our coaches had been coaching like they were auditioning for other jobs and were aggressive insteas of playing not to lose on a consistent basis. We won because of our talent and in spite of the coaching, not vice versa. Had Lloyd opened things up and we'd been winning and he'd retired this year by his own choice, you can't tell me we wouldn't be ranked.

I think all the Chicken Little's need to relax a bit. What has happened at ND is a direct result of Three & Out Jesus's arrogance and refusal to simplify his offensive system. We won't have that problem with R2. the blocking schemes are simple, the reads aren't that complicated, and even if Threet is running it he's by all accounts a highly intelligent dude. I just don't see us having that big of a dip.

Don't worry UM fans, any polls that has South Florida ranked ahead of Oregon after the @$$ woopin we laid on them in the Sun Bowl is absolute garbage anyways. Not being ranked in that poll is not a bad thing at all.

I didn't even know til now that the preseason polls came out. That sucks that Michigan is not rated it's a shocker! By the way I knew about this blog before but I forgot about it for a while it looks like I will visit this blog every so often to get my Michigan info because I am a Wolverine fan.

I thought it was weird the Domers were ranked too, but I haven't seen the list, so if they're not I'm guilty of believing internet propoganda. Looks like my self-imposed ban on making fun of stupid people may have to be raised to 2 weeks. ouch. Come on people! I'm trusting you as sources, and I love making fun of stupid people- you're killing me here!

It's way too early for preseason rankings. I mean, I detest preseason rankings anyway, but this is even before preseason. These rankings are more like Completely Devoid of Meaningful Perspective Rankings.

to everyone: the preseason polls are not out yet. the "official" preseason rankings don't come out until a couple weeks before the season starts. the rankings yost and everyone are talking about are just from various sporting news companies, ie sports illustrated or scout.

Did I tell you what a good blog you have? And good blog post title end times because michigan not being ranked, the end of times dont have to do with football but I know what you meant though that could be meant in a different way I understood it.Maybe you might want to check out my blogmrnotebook.blogspot.com It is not one of the best blogs out their like yours and others I seen but it is okay for me.I will check your blog often to get michigan info here! I like all kinds of Michigan Blogs, I noticed this other new one maybe you know about it? michigansportscenter.blogspot.comthat is a pretty good blog, it is not mine someone else's that I found on the search engine it is a pretty go UM Blog! Check it out!

GD MF-ing son of a- bad bad words repeated many many times! The friggin Irish and Charlie the Hut just hired Tenuta. Bastards. This does not portend good things for us. Screw it, it's Thursday- who's up for happy hour? Damn it that just pisses me off. Of all the places for him to end up. Gah!

Notebook, if you head over to MGoblog. Brian has a fairly comprehensive bunch of links to UofM blogs.

As duly noted by others, preseason means squat. Llllloyd made a career of being highly ranked early on, then dashing the fans expectations by the end of September.

Secondly, the reason they aren't ranked in the top 25 next season, is perhaps because Lloyd left the cupboard relatively bare? Once RR gets his feet under him, and a full year of recruiting, I think we will see the positive results on the field.

Surrounded in Columbus--despite the disagreements we've had on past posts, I totally agree with you. Break down Lloyd's performance against teams with a mobile QB (I know this has been rahashed all over the sports world, but it's worth being reminded of). Do you guys remember the San Diego State game? Northern Illinois? The first half of the '04 MSU game (before we knocked their QB out of the game)? Texas? Iowa and Brad Banks in '02? Vince Young and Texas? Looking at our history against mobile QBs and how Lloyd failed to prepare our team against them, is it any shock that we see App State and Oregon added to that list? The problem isn't that we thought Lloyd Carr was a crappy coach. The problem is that we thought Lloyd Carr was incapable of adapting the game to the different "types" of teams that we've played. Beating Florida was sweeeeet, but it happened because we changed the way we play football, at least for one game.

Lloyd does deserve credit, however, for the poise that he showed AFTER we lost those 2 games. He kept the team focused. But he was also fortunate that there wasn't another true spread offense left on that schedule. Our pre-Wisconsin comeback from the 0-2 start came at the intersection of Lloyd's poise and our good fortune of playing the power Big Ten offenses.

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